To say that the year 2016 shook up the very foundations of the European Union (EU) would not be an exaggeration. The reverberations from the Brexit vote in Britain aside, the economic bloc is undergoing its biggest existential crises that will continue to unravel in the New Year.

The chief executive of Brussels-based trade group Eurochambres analyses whether the traditional trade agreement format is viable any more when it comes to India’s relationship with the European Union (EU).

India has become the world’s fastest-growing large economy. It is the world’s seventh-largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), overtaking the G7 members Canada and Italy as well as Brazil. In 2015 India’s economy expanded despite agriculture facing a second consecutive drought year, with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimating in July 2016 that the Indian economy was on track to meet its projected growth target of 7.4 per cent in 2016-17, supported by brisk consumer spending and an uptick in the rural economy.

India-EU ties can attain great heights but Brussels needs to be a little more sensitive towards New Delhi’s needs

Even as Britain’s “leave” vote in the Brexit referendum continues to grab a disproportionate amount of media attention, the Narendra Modi government and bureaucrats in Brussels are working quietly to realise the full potential of India’s relationship with the European Union (EU), which, many analysts believe, is as, if not more important, than New Delhi’s ties with London.

Manjeev Singh Puri as the Ambassador of India to the European Union (EU), Belgium and Luxembourg has a unique vantage point on the unfolding global order following the UK’s referendum result in favour of an exit from the EU. The seasoned diplomat, who took charge in Brussels in January 2014, takes time out for ‘India Global Business’ to give a broad view of what the post-Brexit scenario could look like for India.